Anatomy of a Lessons Learned Summary Medical Office Manager – March 2019 by Cheryl Toth What do you call the CEO of three failed start-up companies? Experienced. Leaders like this are hired time and again because they’ve made mistakes and learned from them. The lessons they take with them to their next role carry a...
Author: Cheryl Toth (Cheryl Toth)
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7 Ways to Handle a Patient’s Fear of Scars
March 5, 2019 After more than 20 years of asking thousands of patient care coordinators to list the non-financial reasons patients don’t schedule, fear of scarring is consistently cited in the top five. Addressing this fear requires a unified approach that is consistently delivered by everyone in the practice. If a patient doesn’t feel his...
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The Most Common Cyber Weak Spots in Healthcare
January 11, 2019 Recently, a long time client called to tell us that their data had been hacked by cyber criminals. Just a week after experiencing a system crash, the IT staff had been running a series of checks when they found that they could no longer log in to the network. The message on...
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Are Online Coding Discussions Putting Your Practice at Risk?
Are Online Coding Discussions Putting Your Practice at Risk? Medical Office Manager – October 2018 by Cheryl Toth, MBA Here’s an email we recently saw while monitoring a specialty coding listserv: Subject: Acromioplasty and hardware removal with total shoulder arthroplasty Hello All, We have a surgeon that says I am not an aggressive coder because I...
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Protect Your Practice Against Payer Audits with These Preparedness Strategies
Protect Your Practice Against Payer Audits with These Preparedness Strategies Healio ⋅ Orthopedics Today – September 2018 by Cheryl Toth, MBA The top two things that can trigger a payer audit are computer algorithms and coding outliers, according to attorney Patricia Hofstra, a partner at Duane Morris LLC. “It’s almost guaranteed that if you bill a lot...
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Take Your (Clinic) Life Back: Get a Scribe
AAOS Now – August 2018 by Cheryl Toth, MBA A 2017 Medscape survey indicated that nearly half (49 percent) of orthopaedic surgeons feel burned out. The top three causes cited? too many bureaucratic tasks increasing computerization of practice too many hours at work If you’re looking to reduce the number of hours and tasks spent...
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Will The Real Conversion Rate Please Stand Up
Aesthetic Society News — Summer 2018 by Karen Zupko, President, Cheryl Toth, MBA, Amy Boyer, MBA Everyone agrees that it’s important to understand how many patients seen in consultation actually schedule surgery Aesthetic surgeons measure their value on it, and patient care coordinators are rewarded for improving it. Nearly every aesthetic surgeon we talk with wants to...
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How to Hire a Superstar Scribe
Healio ⋅ Orthopedics Today – July 2018 by Cheryl Toth, MBA If you have you been thinking about hiring a scribe to handle your electronic health record data entry, then you are not alone. More physicians are hiring scribes to reduce administrative overload. Physicians who use them report improved quality of life, clinic efficiency and...
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8 Effective Hiring Questions
8 Effective Hiring Questions Healio ⋅ Orthopedics Today – November 2017 by Cheryl Toth, MBA Technical skills and job experience are important considerations when you’re interviewing for new staff, but as a colleague once said to me, “You can’t train for ‘nice.'” In other words, there are some characteristics a candidate either has or doesn’t. Determining...
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Setting Up Your New Physician for Success
The American Journal of Orthopedics – September/October 2016 by Cheryl Toth, MBA Practices and hospitals invest significant time and money in recruiting a new physician. From phone interviews to site visits to contract negotiations, it’s a long and involved process. Beyond setting up a new physician’s office and appointment schedule, completing human resources paperwork, and...